Ukraine vote pits young comic against reformer incumbent

Ukrainians go to the polls on Sunday, with a politically inexperienced 41-year-old comedian set to win the leadership of a country locked in a war with Moscow-backed separatists.

The latest opinion polls show his incumbent rival Petro Poroshenko heading for a brutal defeat in the second-round runoff. A survey by the Rating pollster shows Zelensky winning 73 percent of the vote against 27 percent for Poroshenko.

- Zelensky: rising star -

Zelensky's rise to political prominence has been extraordinary.

When he announced on New Year's Eve he would run for president many dismissed him as a joke.

Three months later he won the first round of the election, receiving nearly twice as many votes as Poroshenko.

And two weeks later the political neophyte held talks with French President Emmanuel Macron at the Elysee Palace, his first foray into big-league European politics.

After the meeting the comedian -- whose political experience is limited to playing a president on TV -- said the French leader was one of the rare politicians with a sense of humour.